Watts Bar construction meeting budget, schedule and safety targets

Watts Bar construction meeting budget, schedule and safety targets

The Tennessee Valley Authority said today it is meeting its budget, safety and schedule targets to complete the Unit 2 reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant within the next three years.

In a quarterly update on the $4 billion project, TVA Senior Vice President Mike Skaggs said the quality of acceptance rate for completed work remains high and workers achieved mroe than 19.7 million hours during the quarter without a lost-time accident, and a recordable injury rate that is better than goal. Additionally, a service air system became the first plant system in more than a year to be completed and turned over for testing this spring.

"The team is working the plan that has been laid out, using comprehensive metrics to monitor progress and making effective adjustments when potential issues arise," Skaggs said in a statement today.

Despite previous problems in verification of plant materials, TVA said purchasing procedures and work orders have since been improved to ensure the plant meets all safety and reliability standards.

Skaggs said key focus areas in the next quarter will be simplifying work orders involving multiple systems and components; completing construction of several plant systems; detailed scheduling for electrical work and planning for open vessel testing.

TVA plans to complete the Watts Bar reactor sometime between September 2015 and June 2016 at a total project cot of $4 billion to $4.5 billion.